# vim-emu: A NFV multi-PoP emulation platform This emulation platform was created to support network service developers to locally prototype and test their network services in realistic end-to-end multi-PoP scenarios. It allows the execution of real network functions, packaged as Docker containers, in emulated network topologies running locally on the developer's machine. The emulation platform also offers OpenStack-like APIs for each emulated PoP so that it can integrate with MANO solutions, like OSM. The core of the emulation platform is based on [Containernet](https://containernet.github.io). The emulation platform `vim-emu` is developed as part of OSM's DevOps MDG. ### Acknowledgments This software was originally developed by the [SONATA project](http://www.sonata-nfv.eu), funded by the European Commission under grant number 671517 through the Horizon 2020 and 5G-PPP programs. ### Cite this work If you use the emulation platform for your research and/or other publications, please cite the following paper to reference our work: * M. Peuster, H. Karl, and S. v. Rossem: [MeDICINE: Rapid Prototyping of Production-Ready Network Services in Multi-PoP Environments](http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7919490/). IEEE Conference on Network Function Virtualization and Software Defined Networks (NFV-SDN), Palo Alto, CA, USA, pp. 148-153. doi: 10.1109/NFV-SDN.2016.7919490. (2016) ## Installation There are multiple ways to install and use the emulation platform. The easiest way is the automated installation using the OSM installer. The bare-metal installation requires a freshly installed Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and is done by an ansible playbook. Another option is to use a nested Docker environment to run the emulator inside a Docker container. ### Automated installation (recommended) ```sh ./install_osm.sh --lxdimages --vimemu ``` This command will install OSM (as LXC containers) as well as the emulator (as a Docker container) on a local machine. It is recommended to use a machine with Ubuntu 16.04. ### Manual installation #### Option 1: Bare-metal installation ```sh sudo apt-get install ansible git aptitude ``` ##### Step 1. Containernet installation ```sh cd git clone https://github.com/containernet/containernet.git cd ~/containernet/ansible sudo ansible-playbook -i "localhost," -c local install.yml ``` ##### Step 2. vim-emu installation ```sh cd git clone https://osm.etsi.org/gerrit/osm/vim-emu.git cd ~/vim-emu/ansible sudo ansible-playbook -i "localhost," -c local install.yml ``` #### Option 2: Nested Docker Deployment This option requires a Docker installation on the host machine on which the emulator should be deployed. ```sh git clone https://osm.etsi.org/gerrit/osm/vim-emu.git cd ~/vim-emu # build the container: docker build -t vim-emu-img . # run the (interactive) container: docker run --name vim-emu -it --rm --privileged --pid='host' -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock vim-emu-img /bin/bash ``` ## Usage ### Example This simple example shows how to start the emulator with a simple topology (terminal 1) and how to start (terminal 2) some empty VNF containers in the emulated datacenters (PoPs) by using the vim-emu CLI. * First terminal (start the emulation platform): * `sudo python examples/default_single_dc_topology.py` * Second terminal (use `docker exec vim-emu ` for nested Docker deployment): * `vim-emu compute start -d dc1 -n vnf1` * `vim-emu compute start -d dc1 -n vnf2` * `vim-emu compute list` * First terminal: * `containernet> vnf1 ifconfig` * `containernet> vnf1 ping -c 2 vnf2` A more advanced example that includes OSM can be found in the [official vim-emu documentation in the OSM wiki](https://osm.etsi.org/wikipub/index.php/VIM_emulator). ### Further documentation and useful links * [Official vim-emu documentation in the OSM wiki](https://osm.etsi.org/wikipub/index.php/VIM_emulator) * [Full CLI command documentation](https://github.com/sonata-nfv/son-emu/wiki/CLI-Command-Overview) * [Requirements for Docker containers executed by the emulator](https://github.com/sonata-nfv/son-emu/wiki/Container-Requirements) * [REST API](https://github.com/sonata-nfv/son-emu/wiki/APIs) * [Mininet](http://mininet.org) * [Containernet](https://containernet.github.io) * [Maxinet](https://maxinet.github.io) ## Development ### How to contribute? Please check [this OSM wiki page](https://osm.etsi.org/wikipub/index.php/Workflow_with_OSM_tools) to learn how to contribute to a OSM module. ### Testing To run the unit tests do: * `cd ~/vim-emu` * `sudo pytest -v` * (To force Python2: `sudo python2 -m pytest -v`) ## Seed code contributors: ### Lead: * Manuel Peuster (https://github.com/mpeuster) * Steven Van Rossem (https://github.com/stevenvanrossem) ### Contributors * Hadi Razzaghi Kouchaksaraei (https://github.com/hadik3r) * Wouter Tavernier (https://github.com/wtaverni) * Geoffroy Chollon (https://github.com/cgeoffroy) * Eduard Maas (https://github.com/edmaas) * Malte Splietker (https://github.com/splietker) * Johannes Kampmeyer (https://github.com/xschlef) ## License The emulation platform is published under Apache 2.0 license. Please see the LICENSE file for more details. ## Contact Manuel Peuster (Paderborn University)